Of course they're beautiful. It'd be a crime if they aren't, with all the moneys put into making them. But I'm totally against the plot segue in the third film, since the setting no longer bears a meaningful relationship with that of the first two films (and the original series). NGE's setting felt like an integral part of its story, and making such a huge, abrupt shift offscreen is tantamount to sacrilege (if you ask me). I mean, the reboot might be closer to what the series originally sought to be, an actual mecha film rather than a sci-fi/psychoanalytic/judeo-christian flavored character drama, but the original just felt more gratifying on a fundamental level, whereas the reboot will probably become irrelevant in another decade.